Golden Road
A trip around the "Golden Road" (originally a carpet, later dots, for a brief time also used a velvet rope and for another brief time, nothing) where the contestant tries to win three prizes, each of which is more expensive than the previous. The game is noteworthy for offering some of the most expensive prizes on the show. Whenever Golden Road is played, it is always the first pricing game to be played in a given episode. Gameplay The game begins with a grocery item priced under $1, whose price is shown to the contestant. The price of a three-digit prize is then revealed, with the hundreds digit missing. The contestant must choose one of the two digits in the price of the grocery item as the missing digit. If they are correct, the game continues with a four-digit prize, whose missing hundreds digit is one of the digits in the price of the three-digit prize. If they are correct, they move on to select the missing hundreds digit in the price of a five-digit (or occasionally six-digit) prize from the digits in the price of the four-digit prize. An incorrect guess at any point ends the game; however, the contestant keeps any prizes won up to that point. Since the first two (or three for six-digit prizes) digits of the final prize's price will be shown, the prize is usually billed as "worth more than many thousand dollars" at the start of the game. The numbers in the first two prizes generally do not repeat, but it is rumored that it did happen at one point. History Golden Road first premiered on August 19, 1975 and all three prizes were won for the first time on November 3, 1975. Golden Road's original claim to fame was that it always offered a prize worth more than $10,000, while other games typically offered cars in the $4,000 range (when CBS had a game show earnings cap of $25,000). The prize value has increased steadily since then, as CBS increased (and later eliminated) the earnings cap to the point where they are usually worth more (sometimes much more) than $60,000 on current playings. On November 3, 1975, the very first permanent hour long show, Golden Road got its very first win and during that time, the first digit of the three-digit prize was supposed to be concealed but the sleeve (using buttons to reveal at that time) was prematurely revealed and Bob offered the player the very first prize anyway. However, the second number from the four-digit prize and the third number from the five-digit prize had their numbers concealed. Originally, the price podiums that conceal missing digits were concealed by plastic sleeves that the host would reveal at the pull of a lever (later the push of a button). At times, these would cause the digit to be revealed prematurely, or when pulling the lever/pushing the button, would cause the sleeve to get stuck. On November 11, 1977, Golden Road had 3 changes-- the original carpet road was replaced with gold circles, the velvet rope was introduced and the push buttons got removed and were replaced with pull-tabs. On Christmas Eve 1986, Golden Road's sign had been redone to have a less glitter and give the letters a more professional appearance. On October 6, 1999, the Golden Road set changed so that the colors of the first two price holders are swapped, changing the sequence from blue-green-red to green-blue-red. The title's font style changed to Times New Roman. On January 15, 2001, the slimmer, colored price holders debuted. Except for its premiere, when it was played third, Golden Road is always played as the first game of a show. From June 14, 1989 until his retirement in 2007, then-host Bob Barker almost always entered from the back of the audience at the beginning of the show when Golden Road was to be played, as the game takes up the entire stage and would have been given away with a Door #2 entrance. One notable exception to this was on May 16, 2007, the final The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular with Bob as host, when he entered the stage through Door #2; to keep his entrance from giving away the game, the dots that make up the "road" were not used, a change that was subsequently made on the daytime show with Drew Carey taking over at the start of the 36th season, although it was undone after only two playings. The dots are now set up during the first One Bid. However, Carey continues to enter through Door #2 and has not yet entered from the audience for this game or any other. One notable exception to this was on June 23, 2008, when he made his only audience entrance. On 1994's syndicated The New Price Is Right, Golden Road began with a two-digit prize or a fishbowl of cash. On April 22, 2010, in keeping with the Earth Day theme, Golden Road was renamed Green Road and on October 31, 2010, in keeping with The Wizard of Oz theme, it was renamed again, this time to Golden Brick Road. On October 17, 2013, during Big Money Week, Golden Road was played for a $189,565 Bentley Continental GT. During that playing, the contestant only had the first and second prizes guessed correctly. On November 20, 2013, during Dream Car Week, it was played for a 2014 Mercedes-Benz SL550 convertible worth over $114,000. During that playing, the contestant lost on the first prize. It hasn't received another complete Daytime win since Feburary 20, 2007, On December 23, 2014, it was played for a 2015 Mercedes-Benz GL450 4Matic worth $73,900. During that playing, Giselle Moody, the last of the first four contestants called to come on down, not only won the car, but became the first contestant since Drew became host to completely win Golden Road (though an earlier playing in 2008 with Drew hosting was won in primetime). Pictures Bob's Era Golden Road 1.jpg|Here's the old tacky start position of Golden Road from the first permanent hour long show on November 3, 1975 and featured on Disc 3 of the DVD set. What ugly lettering! Golden Road.JPG|Here's the first font for the numbers. Notice the lever on the price podium that Bob has to turn to reveal the correct digit. The levers would quickly be replaced with buttons later on in the game's run. Golden Road 2.jpg|Back then they offered cars worth more than $10,000 like this one, from that first permanent hour long show. Notice the carpet that was originally the Golden Road. Golden Road 3.jpg|This was what the price was, and the contestant won it (the car, that is). This time, notice the button. 83gr_error.jpg|What's going on here? (The buttons were done away with at this point) Golden Road 4.jpg|It's the same tacky start prop but with a better font. This is from the show's 17th season premiere. Golden Road 5.jpg|By that point, cars and other big prizes were worth more than $20,000. Notice the dots for the Golden Road. Here's the car offered that day, but the contestant didn't make it because... Golden Road 6.jpg|...he blew it on the 2nd prize with this price. Grmotorhome1.jpg|But here's better news, a motorhome was offered that day on November 28, 1994 and that was won. NOTE: In the case of big prizes size-wise, the rainbow was not available since there was no room to see it. Grmotorhome2.jpg|This was the price of the motorhome. golden7.jpg|Bob is making his famous entrance from the back so the 1st game must be... golden8.jpg|...Golden Road!!! Here it is from March 1999. golden10.jpg|And it ends with this luxurious Sportscar worth over $70,000! Unfortunately, this contestant didn't make it there as she blew it on the second prize. Golden Road 7.jpg|Now that's much better; the rainbow start prop with the ultra better looking arrow logo which is still used today. Here's a playing from March 2005. Golden Road 8.jpg|The big prize offered that day was a trailer. Golden Road 9.jpg|This was the price of the trailer; the trailer was won by the contestant that day. Drew's Era Golden Road (Drew) 1.jpg|Here's a playing of Golden Road from The Price is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular. Golden Road (Drew) 2.jpg|This was the car offered that night. Golden Road (Drew) 3.jpg|This is its price, and the car was won. Golden Road (Drew) 4.jpg|On Earth Day 2010, instead of Golden Road, they called it Green Road. Golden Road (Drew) 5.jpg|This by that time was the most expensive prize offered. It's a Tesla Roadster! Golden Road (Drew) 6.jpg|This was the price of it. Sadly, the contestant did not win it. goldenbrickroad1.jpg|On the 2010 Halloween Special, Golden Road was renamed 'Golden Brick Road' goldenbrickroad4.jpg|The 'Golden Brick Road' path goldenbrickroad2.jpg|The car offered on that day. But that contestant didn't get to play for it, because... goldenbrickroad3.jpg|...she had guessed the 2nd prize wrong. Christmas 2014 Golden Road Win! 1.jpg|It's Christmas 2014 and it's time to walk the Golden Road again. Christmas 2014 Golden Road Win! 2.jpg|This is the car the contestant is going for. NOTE: By this point, the rainbow is now split into five monitors and dig the fireworks effect from those two pots. Christmas 2014 Golden Road Win! 3.jpg|This contestant is so excited that she gave the car a kiss for good luck. Christmas 2014 Golden Road Win! 4.jpg|Of these four numbers from the price of the previous prize, which of these is third number in the price of the Merecedes-Benz? The contestant said "9". Is it nine? Christmas 2014 Golden Road Win! 5.jpg|Wait for it, wait for it... Christmas 2014 Golden Road Win! 6.jpg|YES! YouTube Videos Golden Road Premiere(August 19, 1975) Exciting Golden Road Win from 1990 (January 4, 1990) Golden Road win(October 6, 1999) Golden Road win from 2001 (January 15, 2001) Great Golden Road Win(April 15, 2002) Golden Road win from 2003 (November 10, 2003) Golden Road win for a Corvette!(December 9, 2003) Primetime Golden Road winner(April 9, 2005) Last Golden Road win under Bob's Barker's tenure(February 20, 2007) Another Primetime Golden Road winner(April 4, 2008) Playing under the name 'Green Road'(April 22, 2010) Golden Brick Road playing(October 29, 2010) Golden Road playing from Dream Car Week(November 20, 2013) The First ever Drew Carey Daytime Golden Road Win!(December 24, 2014) Category:Pricing Games Category:Active Games Category:3-Prize Games Category:Grocery Product Games Category:Car Games Category:1970s Pricing Games Category:Can't Make a Mistake Category:Must be Correct to Continue Category:You Don't Have to Win it All Category:A Choice of 2 Category:A Choice of 3 Category:A Choice of 4